


No Choice at All

by TenyasLeggies



Series: No Going Back, Writer [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Non-Graphically Depicted Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:47:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22345078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenyasLeggies/pseuds/TenyasLeggies
Summary: What's it going to be, Detective? My grandson’s life or your former mentor’s self-righteous code?It was no choice at all.
Relationships: Tim Drake & Damian Wayne
Series: No Going Back, Writer [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1608484
Comments: 10
Kudos: 207





	No Choice at All

**Author's Note:**

> So, I've been feeling down on myself about my writing and never being able to finish anything, so I've created a new exercise where I give myself just 1 hour to write something, and I can only go back and make edits once the hour is up. This is a result of that.

Tim doesn't look at Damian when the League ninja herd them into their shared quarters. Can't really. He wishes he could slide down the polished wooden door and curl in on himself and shut the world out for hours. For days. Maybe forever. It would beat meeting Damian’s eyes after... _that._

If Damian had nothing but contempt for him before, he dreads what his actions of the past day have done for his standing in the boy's eyes.

He swallows against the bile rising in his throat. Something's off about his breathing. He forces his lungs to expand - contract. Goes to clench his fists but stops as soon as he feels the creases in his palms stick together with the partially dried blood that still covers his hands. He'd done what he had to, he reminds himself, and he'd do it again.

_What's it going to be, Detective? My grandson’s life or you former mentor’s self-righteous code?_

It was no choice at all.

He forces wooden limbs to carry him over to the bed closest to the door, still keeping his eyes downward to avoid catching Damian’s gaze. It's as if he's watching someone else settle slowly onto the plush down mattress. It can't possibly be him who calmly folds distant hands into his lap and straightens his shoulders.

“Tt, you're a mess, Drake.”

Finally, he looks up. 

He's fallen through ice into frigid waters before, but this is worse.

Damian’s scowling at him, a rag in his hands. “Give me your hand.”

Tim doesn't even think about resisting, just holds out his hand, which Damian takes and begins wiping away the congealing blood. His hands are surprisingly gentle for a trained assassin. Surprisingly strong for a child as he wipes away the evidence of Tim’s transgressions.

They continue like this in silence for a few moments before Damian needs to rinse out the rag at the basin across the room. When he returns to Tim to continue his work, his scowl has deepened, and Tim is uncomfortably aware of how much like his father Damian is.

The thought of Batman, of what his reaction will be when he finds out what Tim's done, makes Tim's hands shake in Damian's grasp. The bile he'd managed to hold back before comes back up suddenly, and Damian barely has time to sidestep before Tims spewing the meager contents of his stomach out at Damian’s feet. Tim spends a few more moments just breathing after that, before he forces himself to straighten back up and wipe his mouth on the sleeve of his Leage robes.

_Ha, take that, Ra’s._ He thinks bitterly.

Tim hates how pathetic he's being. He'd done what he'd done to protect Damian, and falling apart right now won't help them out of this situation. He's just got to hold on long enough to get them out of here. 

Damian, to Tim’s surprise, doesn't say anything, just reaches impatiently for Tim’s hand back and goes back to cleaning it. When he's done, he goes back to the basin. He returns a moment later with a cup of more water, “Wash your mouth out.” He orders.

Normally, the tone would grate on Tim’s nerves. Now, he's just grateful for the direction as he struggles to collect himself. 

“Thank you,” he manages after he's spit back into the cup. 

“I haven't done anything to warrant your gratitude.” Damian says like it's obvious.

It's not so obvious to Tim, but he doesn't have the energy to argue right now. He doesn't think Damian is going to offer any explanation, so he's surprised when Damian speaks again.

“I've forced you to break Father's code.” Damian says, and he's now staring fixedly at the floor. His younger brother's whole body is tense, his shoulders hunched in around themselves. His whole posture is so decidedly un-Damian like it rattles Tim's already frayed nerves. “I...why did you do it?” 

Damian's plaintive tone is the youngest Tim's ever heard him sound before, and it tugs at Tim's already-taut chest and leaves him at a loss as to how to respond. The current Robin isn't accusing or disgusted as Tim might've expected. Instead he sounds scared and lost.

“I'm sorry,” Tim says, not sure what else to say.

“You're an even bigger idiot than I thought , Drake,” he says, his familiar angry tones lacing his words.

Tim can't find it in himself to disagree. If he'd been better prepared or smarter, he would've thought of a way out of this that kept both him and Damian alive while still adhering to Batman’s code. But in the heat of the moment, when it had really mattered, it was all he could do to save Damian before it was too late. Even now, replaying the scene over and over in his head revealed no new solutions to Tim.

Tim supposed Batman had been right to mistrust him with Captain Boomerang, if it was this easy to drive him to cross the one line he was never supposed to cross.

“I'm sorry, Damian,” Tim says again, “But I'm going to get us out of this. I promise. I have a plan.”

Instead of being reassured, though, Damian growls in frustration, grabbing a fistful of Tim's robes and yanking him forward. “That's not what I mean, you giant ignoramus,” he says, “I mean that you-- You shouldn't have done it.” As fast as the anger had come on, it fades, and Damian’s grip on Tim's clothes goes limp.

“I…”

“You shouldn't have done it for _me._ ” Damian chokes out, like the words physically hurt to say, and finally. _Finally,_ ignoramus that he is, Tim gets it.

The sudden realization stiffens his spine and burns a second wind of strength through his limbs. “Damian, look at me,” he says, sliding off the bed to kneel at Damian's eye level and places his hands gently on Damian's shoulders. It takes a moment, but Damian raises eyes glittering with poorly concealed tears to meet Tim's gaze. It fills Tim with an aching need to comfort the boy and a fierce desire to protect him from the world around him. And it makes him more certain than ever of his decision. He wonders if this is what Dick and Bruce feel about Damian all the time.

He thinks now he understands more than just intellectually some of their past actions.

“I know we've had our...disagreements. But I need you to understand: I don't regret it for a moment. I'd do again. Every time. And not because I feel obligated. But because you're _worth_ saving.”

“I'm not a child in need of your reassurances.” Damian scrubs roughly at his eyes with his own robe sleeves, looking away from Tim again.

Tim's surprised when a chuckle escapes him, and he ruffles Damian's hair in a way he's seen Dick do countless times, “Of course. But humor me, okay? I'm going to keep reassuring you till it gets through your extra thick skull.”

Damian's back to scowling again, and Tim takes that as a good enough sign. He pulls back to sit on the bed again and gestures for Damian to take a seat beside him. 

“Now...let’s talk escape plans.”

\---

Ra’s indulges a small smile at the report of his assassin assigned to spy on the bat children. He even raises an eyebrow at the words _I'd do it again._

“Were those his exact words?” He asks evenly, not a trace of his growing anticipation showing.

“Yes, sir.”

“Excellent news.” he says, “It seems my grandson will be useful for something after all.”


End file.
